The Way - Chapter 6 - The Final Week

Jesus’ final week is upon us.  From Palm Sunday to Easter, Jesus experienced the widest range of emotions… rage at the Temple, love for his disciples at the Passover supper, despair in the garden, exhaustion as he carried his cross, abandonment at the cross... and ultimately the silence of death.  The four gospels differ on the details of this last week… they were not news reporters but instead were writing theologically to specific groups of people to convince them of Jesus identity as Messiah and King.  Any attempt to try to reconcile their accounts and make them fit into one timeline will be met with frustration.  The reality and the message of Jesus were much more important than the minute details.  The message of Holy Week is: Jesus is a new kind of King.

1. Thinking of the pictures of the areas where Holy Week occurred, what do the structures say about the time of Jesus?  Their building practices? Their size and workmanship?  
2. In what ways does this style of architecture make Jerusalem an eternal city, one that has been fought over for generations?
3. How did Palm Sunday set the stage for the events at the end of the week?  Do you think the arrest, trial and crucifixion could have happened without Palm Sunday?
4. Jesus turned over the moneychangers tables in the temple as a reaction to their “bad religion.”  What examples of bad religion do we see in our world today?  Do you think there is more or less bad religion than in Jesus’ time?
5. Did this action by Jesus set up all of the other events of the week?  How do we do the right thing even when we know it might lead us into troubled times?
6. On Friday, Jesus carried his cross to his death… a long, grueling, painful death.  What does it mean when we say that Jesus died for our sins?  Adam says that the cross is a mirror to our souls.  What does he mean when he says that?  When you look in the mirror what do you see?
7. What kind of king would willingly submit to that kind of torture?  Did he go unafraid?  Why did he pray for the forgiveness of those who executed him?  What does this teach us about forgiveness?
8. Is it really possible to understand the tremendous emotion of the week since we know how it ends?  How can Holy Week be different than any other week of the year?
9. What kind of king is Jesus to you?

Jesus knew what he was doing.  From the time of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through the other events of the week, it was only a matter of time before the Jewish leaders and government officials would make sure that he would no longer be ab;e to upset the established order of their world.  He knew that the crowds would eventually demand a warrior king.  He knew that the disciples would betray or abandon him.  He knew of his impending death... and what happened next.

Easter Sunday morning offers us a new beginning.  As we prepare for that new reality, may we receive the gift that Jesus' life, death and resurrection bring.